Indian and Canadian intelligence officials have reportedly had several meetings recently, which suggests that Washington has succeeded in pressuring Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to quietly come to terms with its links to overseas assassination plots, which it officially denies.
A US indictment unsealed in November provided details of Indian government involvement in three assassination plots targeting Canadian Sikh activists pushing for an independent Khalistan in northern India, which India considers a terrorist movement. India denies any link, and when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused it of involvement in September 2023, Modi angrily expelled 41 Canadian diplomats.
Four men have been charged in the murder of Sikh-Canadian activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
Bloomberg reports, though, that intelligence chiefs from Canada and India have recently held at least two information-sharing meetings in a third country, and Canada’s national security adviser has been meeting with India’s high commissioner in Ottawa. The government of President Joe Biden, which has sought to cultivate a closer relationship with India as a regional counterbalance to China, is reported to be urging India to clean up its intelligence agencies and prosecute spies involved in setting up assassinations.
The meetings between Canadian and Indian officials suggest that the American pressure is working, and that Modi’s government has concluded that a good relationship with Uncle Sam is more useful than running hit squads in friendly countries, which should reduce tensions between Ottawa and New Delhi in the future.
